“Lone Fisherman’s Day Long But He’s Happy With Job” from the November 20, 1958 Door County Advocate

By GRACE GRASSE

CLARENCE LIND performs the never-ending chore of the commercial fisherman, mending his nets. Mr. Lind fishes out of Ellison Bay.      —Advocate photo

Lone Fisherman’s Day Long But He’s Happy With Job

By GRACE GRASSE

ELLISON BAY — Clarence Lind is a fisherman by choice. There is nothing in the world he would rather do, and regardless of conditions he would rather take his chances with his chosen work than do any other thing, even if he made more money. He is content and so is his wife. She says they make enough to live on comfortably and that’s all they want.

It was good to talk to these people because there Is so much discontentment in the world and just to look at Mr. Lind’s face one sees the peace of mind that contentment brings.

It all started when Lind was a boy of 15. Out of curiosity he went along with a neighbor, a fisherman, to see what it was all about. He liked what he saw and started to help the fishermen. At 17, he had two nets of his own. He has been fishing since 1929.

Lind, not a robust looking man, is used to working alone, often many hours a day. He readily answered all questions put to him and seemed pleased with the interest shown in his work.

Yes, the day is long for this fisherman, starting at six in the morning and ending late in the afternoon. His nets are out a mile or so in the bay, and every morning at this early hour, one finds Lind and his boat, the Gem, pulling up the catch. The nets, usually two boxes and set the day before, are pulled into the boat, laden with fish. Then he must set two more boxes of nets into the water for the next day’s catch. This frequently takes several hours. After this, it’s back to the dock with the catch. The fish must be cleaned, weighed and packed in ice in the boxes, and shipped to a Green Bay market.

The day I visited the fisherman I got there just in time to take his picture feeding the seagulls that had patiently been wailing, bobbing on the rough water. When he appeared with his bucket of refuse the gulls quickly flew overhead and swooped down to devour their feed.

After lunch, Lind goes to his shack, located behind the Viking Grill and Wickman’s lumber mill. Here he cleans, reels his nets and mends them. After the white nylon nets are dry they are carefully removed from the reels and folded into boxes to be stored until they are used again. He has about 60 boxes stored in his shack. His white-fish nets have not been used since 1950, although occasionally one is set to test if the whitefish are coming back. Reports of lots of baby whitefish have been going around. Dark colored nets are used in the winter and spring when holes are cut into the ice and nets are anchored under the surface.

Years back Lind had a helper, but one is unnecessary now that the catches are smaller, although this man said that he is catching more perch now than he did three years ago. The day I was there he had caught about 130 pounds of perch and ten pounds of herring. He told of the difficulty of herring fishing at that time, and of the nets that must lay close to the bottom of the lake, and are so filled with smelt that the herring must be sorted out and the unwanted fish fed to the gulls.

He says the perch feed on smelt, stone rollers and worms. The herring feed on worms and vegetation.

When asked what legislation, if any, would help him to catch more fish, Lind replied, “definitely a closed season on herring would give the fish a chance to spawn. Other fish are protected, but not the herring.”

Mrs. Lind told me how cautious her husband is, as he listens to the weather reports continuously and if a storm is expected during the night he’ll sometimes go out at six in the evening and take his nets up, and not put them back until favorable weather. He has rarely lost his nets, and runs his business very systematically.

She laughingly showed me his fleet of ice cars that he uses in the winter. They were parked in the woods back of their house. The fleet consisted of several old jalopies.

And, when the Linds take a trip, he makes a beeline to visit his friends—fishermen from Algoma, Kewaunee and Escanaba, and while his good wife sits in the car sewing, what do these friends talk about? Three guesses. That’s right, fish, fishing and more fish.

Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive

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